RE: Re : Re: And now for your breakfast enjoyment... preserved muscle tissue in tyrantturds!

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Aegyptiacus@aol.com
>
> I was just wondering...
> Given the size of the "turd", it must have been a medium to large
> carnivore, OK. How do we know it was a tyrannosaurid? Hasn't
> there been any other medium to large kind of theropod at that
> time and in this place?
>

Nope.  As far as is known, the only large-sized carnivorous theropods in
western North America during the Campanian (and Maastrichtian) are
tyrannosaurids.  In fact, the next largest forms are oviraptorosaurs and
ornithomimosaurs, neither of which are really likely candidates for bone
crunchers.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796